Above: Select the required shipbuilder by using initial letter of the surname eg: Armstrong, Palmer or Readhead.

Shipbuilder: Francis Hurry & Co, North Shields (1761 - 1806)

Shipbuilder: Francis Hurry & Co, Howdon (1763 - 1811)

Above map is copyright of the Ordnance Survey & dated 1864. Hurry's shipyard is to the right & the River Tyne to the bottom

Hurry's shipbuilding yard at Howdon was one of the most significant shipbuilding enterprises on the Tyne in the 18th century.
Shipbuilding began at Howdon in 1758 and a large graving dock was constructed in early 1759.
Francis & Thomas Hurry constructed ships at both Howdon and Shields Dock and probably more than 150 vessels totalling some 40,000 tons were launched from these yards.

For the period, the Howdon yard was a very substantial establishment in terms of merchant shipbuilding.
It comprised four slipways as well as a double dry dock and the quay had over 800ft of river frontage.
Unusually, a ropery and a sailmaking loft were also attached to the yard.
Both the dry dock facilities and the tonnage of new ships built suggest that a great deal of repair work was carried out there.
In the period 1787-1799 Hurry's yards constructed a quarter of the Tyne built and registered tonnage.

Francis Hurry was the managing partner of a business group of prominent Newcastle citizens, which included Edward Mosley and Thomas Airey.
It is likely therefore that ships attributed to Mosley & Airey were actually constructed at Hurry's premises.
Similarly 2 warships built by John Baker were almost certainly built by Hurry.

More shipwrights (266) worked at Hurry's two shipyards in 1804, than in any other merchant yard in Britain.
For comparison the largest yard on the Thames employed 173.

Francis & Thomas Hurry went into bankruptcy in 1806 and shipbuilding eventually ceased in 1811.
Francis Hurry died 08/10/1808 aged 79.